There are many great things about the Sort Your Story software and many adults are using it to organize their genealogical research. Did you know it is an excellent program for kids? Here are 10 reasons why your child should be using Sort Your Story.

Easy to use. Kids can create a profile on themselves or an ancestor in just a few clicks. This is a great first step using software as a child enters the world of genealogy.

It is colorful. Sort Your Story is very visually appealing. Lots of colorful icons are available for all record types.

It is printable. Once a profile is created and records and information have been added, you can print the information and share it.

It will keep you organized. Sort Your Story has a folder for every record type you need. Images can be stored in these folders for easy retrieval.

You can use it for school. Sort Your Story allows you to write notes to accompany each record you enter for an individual. You can transcribe records or write a story. All of this information can be copied from Sort Your Story and pasted into a Word document to write a report for school.

What do you think? Are you ready to share Sort Your Story with your child?

Today I was working on a few sections of an upcoming Sort Your Story companion guide and one section was on newspaper articles.

Have you noticed how much information may be contained both in plain sight and “hidden” in newspaper articles? The article I was working with was about a couple of Army soldiers from 1952 who scored a perfect on a mental aptitude test. Reading that article without looking deeply for details you probably notice the nice picture of the men above the article. You may note their names and possibly the unit in which they served. But there are a few other details you might overlook such as their addresses being listed which allows you to put them in a specific place in 1952. It also lists their occupations, yet another way to identify them or search for additional information on these men.

Examine every piece of a newspaper article and make sure you source that article and if possible, photocopy or download a copy of it to your computer. Enter that information in Sort Your Story and note any special details that might lead to new research. Those often overlooked details may help you open up an entirely new research path.